Be Nice
"Carrying the groceries for my neighbor who lives on the third floor, that makes a difference."
I first noticed it at the library. At the entrance, they have a wall that serves as sort of a community bulletin board, with various events and services posted. Except I noticed that nearly half of the posters weren’t about a local event or service as such, but rather public serve announcements to… be nice.
Shortly after, I noticed signs in the metro stations, put up by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), featuring photos of their staff and showing messages like, “Cho likes to serve his clients. Not to be told that he is useless,” and “Like you, our teams deserve respect.”
"We will not tolerate any form of violence or aggressive behavior towards our staff."
Soon I realized these signs were everywhere – at the post office, at the SAAQ (the Québec equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles), on the bus, and even at private businesses like retail shops or cafés. For example, at a café in the park, a sign at the register read, “Here, courtesy and kindness are a must! We reserve the right not to serve anyone who disrespects our staff.”
Sure, I had occasionally seen signs like that at businesses in the US. Although, I’d also seen the opposite sort of signs. A grocery store in my home town famously had a sign that read: “Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, re-read Rule 1.” More than once I’ve seen people act like they own a place – and the poor people that work there – just because they’re buying something and “the customer is king.”
"Behind the uniform, there is a person. Respect is free, and it pays off."
But here in Montréal, there are signs everywhere reminding you not to behave like that. The message is clear – not only to respect customer-facing staff, but overall, to be a good citizen and simply BE NICE (Canadian nice). Many of the signs are about being nice to employees, but others are just about being nice to your neighbor, or someone you cross on the street – because it’s nice to be nice. Kindness for kindness sake.
We are all one community and one society, and what goes around comes around.
Kindness helps us work.
